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NHS Orkney’s funding for 2016-17 is in line with the NRAC target. NHS Orkney’s resource budget will increase by 4.6% to £43.2 million, an above inflation increase, having previously increased by 15.1% in 2015-16.

The Scottish Government provided the Scottish Association of Young Farmers Clubs (SAYFC) with funding of £66,000 for a three year period which was always intended to end in March 2016, with no organisations guaranteed funding beyond this point.

However, the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Food and the Environment was able to provide SAYFC with funding of £30,000 in recognition of the role it plays in his portfolio interests. This is not linked to the previous funding.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-30769 on 18 March 2016. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

To give a full answer to the question i.e. to provide information spanning five years, broken down as requested has necessitated further bespoke interrogation of the IT system and will take some time to complete. The requested information will be made available to the requestor as soon as we are able to do so.

All 32 local authorities offer kinship care payments.

Applications to the new Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention and Adult Learning and Empowering Communities Funds were assessed in terms of relevance, need, quality (of outcomes proposed), sustainability, consideration of vulnerable groups (equalities), partnership/collaborative working, likelihood to deliver and value for money.

All applications were assessed according to these criteria and scored. The score for the Scottish Association of Young Farmers Clubs (SAYFC’s) application fell below that of many other organisations which better met the fund criteria. That decision was taken by the board set up by the Scottish Government to ensure that the fund had a balanced portfolio and that essential activities and services will be supported, and make final decisions.

SAYFC has received feedback on the quality of its application from Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland and importantly, on how to improve any future application.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-30765 and S4W-30769 on 18 March 2016. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

At present our focus is to secure devolution of management and revenues of the Crown Estate in Scotland. We will implement interim arrangements to manage Crown Estate assets in advance of the Scottish Parliament using devolved powers which ensure a full and faithful implementation of The Smith Commission recommendations.

Future decisions on the longer term management arrangements will form part of a Scottish Government consultation process. We have already committed to provide coastal and island councils with 100% of net revenue from Crown Estate marine activities inside the 12 nautical mile zone, following devolution.

The Scottish Government will continue to engage with island councils and other local authorities, through the Stakeholder Advisory Group on the Crown Estate, to develop options for the longer term framework. As part of the Island Areas Ministerial Working Group process we have been discussing the potential for piloting devolution of functions for management of Crown Estate assets in the three island council areas ahead of a Scottish Bill.

As part of the process of designing and optimising Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband roll-out on Orkney, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) asked BT to explore what synergies could be achieved with SSE and other utilities providers in order to make the deployment as effective as possible. It was established that SSE had no commercial plans to lay further cable in or around Orkney at that time and BT planned its fibre deployment on that basis.

For any future broadband projects, the Scottish Government and HIE will continue to look at how existing infrastructure could be used.

The Young Innovators Challenge was developed and established in response to this 2011 manifesto commitment. Launched in 2013, the Young Innovators Challenge is a competition for people in training, further and higher education. Its key aims are to encourage a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship among students and trainees and to help them turn their ideas into viable business propositions. The challenge is run for the Scottish Government by the Scottish Institute for Enterprise, and in the three years since its launch, it has awarded over £420k in prizes to over 300 winners.